Recently, shortening of the processing time and reducing of the waste liquid for decreasing the environmental pollution have been demanded with respect to the processing of a silver halide photographic light-sensitive material, hereinafter referred to a light-sensitive material. For example, in the field of medicine, the amount of radiophotograph is increased accompanied with a swift increasing of medical examination such as those in a medical health check and a common medical diagnosis. Thus demands to further raise the rapidity of processing and to further reduce of the waste processing liquid are increasingly strengthened.
A light-sensitive material which can be rapidly developed, fixed and dried is required to perform the processing in a shortened time. It has been known that a tabular silver halide grain is effective to obtain a high sensitivity and a high covering power. Such the tabular grain has a larger surface area compared with a regular silver halide grain such as a hexagonal or an octahedral grain. Accordingly, the tabular grain has an advantage that a high sensitivity can be obtained since a larger amount of spectral sensitizer can be adsorbed on the grain surface.
On the other hand, a silver image formed from a silver halide grain having a small size or a small thickness such as the tabular grain has a drawback that the tone of the silver image is yellowish since blue light is strongly scattered by the silver image formed from such the grain.
It is preferred in the case of a medical radiographic light-sensitive material that the tone of silver image is pure black or blue black from the viewpoint of diagnosis. The yellowish image is not suitable for diagnosis and is displeasure for the observer.
Various techniques for improving the tone of the silver image have been proposed from the viewpoint of the light-sensitive material and the processing therefor. For example, a specific mercapto compound has been known but such the compound has a considerable desensitizing effect.
Recently, a technique is disclosed in JP O.P.I. No. 5-165147, in which a specific dye is dissolved in a water-insoluble high-boiling organic solvent and dispersed in an aqueous medium in a form of fine particles, and added into a light-sensitive material.
However, the light-sensitive material according to this method has a drawback such that the sensitivity is considerably changed during the storage. Moreover, such the light-sensitive material shows a problem that a stain is sticked to a fluorescent intensifying screen to be contacted to the light-sensitive material when such the light-sensitive material is used as a medical radiographic light-sensitive material. The light-sensitive material further has a drawback that the fog density is increased since the amount of the dye contained in the none image area is the same as that contained in the image formed area of the light-sensitive material.
To solved such the problem, a method is proposed in JP O.P.I. 3-157645, in which a non-diffusible compound capable of releasing a diffusible dye corresponding to the silver image formation is used. The effects of this method is insufficient to improve the tone of silver image and to reduce the fog. Furthermore, this method has a problem such that the improvement effect on the image tone and the fog is increased by the storage under a serious condition.